I Gain Infinite Gold Just By Waiting-Chapter 208: Episode 45_SVIP (5)

Episode 208

Chapter 45: SVIP (5)

5.

“In that case, let’s use this chance to try a third method for the first time.”

The reason Buja had asked Sergei for help was for the auction. After all, Sergei had far more experience with this kind of auction—no, with auctions in general.

Besides, this wasn’t an auction with an exceptionally high failure rate. No matter how much people thought the mystery stone might be something, almost no one valued it as highly as Buja, who was prepared to sell a Legendary item if he had to.

If he invested that much and it turned out to be just a worthless rock, he would be throwing away a fortune. Even so, auctions always came with variables, and he’d called Sergei in to handle those worst-case scenarios.

Naturally, he had never intended to hand the entire auction over to Sergei. By now, he’d saved up more than enough money and was perfectly capable of buying what he needed himself.

Sergei had even offered to buy it for him outright, but he had refused. If he ended up borrowing money in a worst-case scenario, that would still be a debt.

Debt was debt, no matter how close you were. There was no need to create an obligation he would have to repay someday.

That’s why he’d used his head. While everyone’s attention was focused on Sergei, he would steer the auction more easily than expected and walk away with the item.

Whatever the case, the result had turned out well. Whether it was thanks to Sergei or would have been the same without him didn’t matter.

He had the "SVIP Promotion Stone (3)" in his hand, and he no longer had to worry about going all the way to the Ice Castle to figure out where and how to find it.

’Good thing I didn’t go there and try to negotiate.’

Most importantly, he didn’t have to give away any information about the stone. At first, he had considered going to Fly in person, returning the "Tear of the Glacier" he had received from him, and asking for an exchange. But if he had done that, the Promotion Stone might have stayed in Fly’s warehouse forever.

With that in mind, he decided to be satisfied.

“You’re bolder than I thought, Buja. I assume that stone is worth at least that much to you?” Sergei asked, as Buja basked in his satisfaction.

Without hesitation, Buja nodded.

“It’s something you can’t buy with money.”

And he had just bought it with money. He also didn’t have to sell "Tear of the Glacier," so it would come in handy if he ever felt like taking on the Ice Lord of the Ice Castle.

That was enough.

’My assets scattered across the globe will end up in Fly’s hands, but that’s fine. I can just travel via dungeons.’

He suddenly felt his eyes sting. Sure, between the continents and the Trial Tower, all his spare time was spent grinding dungeons, so he hadn’t had time for overseas vacations anyway. Still, when he thought about all the land, buildings, and villas he’d acquired across the world, for a moment, he felt like he’d become a beggar overnight.

The ice stone he had bought at such a steep price dissolved the instant it touched Kim Buja’s hand, its substance transforming into a requirement for his class promotion.

Reality itself felt like an illusion.

“This is fun.”

A new kind of thrill coursed through him, and Kim Buja left the auction house, satisfied.

* * *

Once the auction ended, public attention naturally shifted to Kim Buja.

—He had to know what that thing was before he bought it, right?

—Duh, you don’t drop ten billion dollars on something unless you know what it is.

—Wait, not a million, but ten billion dollars? Are you sure you don’t mean ten billion won?

—Nah, it was dollars. That’s like 12 trillion won so ten billion dollars, for real.

—Damn, how rich is this guy? I heard he’s only in his level 30s.

—Go watch his channel. His videos pull in billions of views each. Plus, he’s decked out in Legendary gear from head to toe. He could sell one or two of those pieces and make the money back easy.

People were busy speculating about the fortune he had just spent.

And they were just as obsessed with the mysterious stone.

—What kind of stone do you think it is?

—For ten billion dollars, it has to be at least a Legendary item, right?

—It’d have to be. That’s the only way the math works out.

—The other bidders must be kicking themselves. They were probably agonizing over whether to bid or not.

—Seriously, who spends that kind of money on a gacha pull? You’d need a Legendary-tier item just to break even. No, scratch that. You’d need a usable Legendary just to break even.

Everyone was convinced it had to be something incredible.

They believed Kim Buja had bought it because he knew exactly what he was getting.

Comments like these flooded the forums.

It was only natural. Otherwise, no one could have possibly predicted such a staggering final price.

Inevitably, all eyes turned to Kim Buja’s video channel.

They waited, wondering when he would upload something.

—When’s the review for the ten-billion-dollar rock dropping?

—I’d pay to watch that.

—To break even, he’d need 10 billion views on a one-dollar video.

—LOL, even at a dollar, there’s no way he’s getting ten billion views.

For those who were waiting, Kim Buja gladly obliged.

—Whoa, he actually set it at one dollar.

—Okay, I’ll give him this one. Respect.

—If a guy can spend ten billion dollars on a chunk of ice, I can cough up a dollar to see what it is.

His channel hosted tons of videos, and like any other platform, some were free while others were pay-to-view. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

Naturally, the paid videos had lower view counts.

It wasn’t that his viewers lacked spending power; it was a question of whether the content was worth the price.

A quick search for similar keywords would yield countless free videos that were cleaner and more polished than most paywalled content. Who would bother paying?

Besides, there were plenty of ways to monetize without deliberately tanking your view count.

Views translated directly into revenue, and on top of that, there was the donation system.

Because of this, even adult content—which had a more reliable paying audience—had been trending toward a free model lately.

And yet, his video’s performance didn’t lag in the slightest.

Part of it was the price point—one dollar felt like nothing.

The other part was that his content was truly unique, the kind of thing you couldn’t find anywhere else.

In the video, Kim Buja spoke.

“Honestly, I wasn’t planning to reveal this. I didn’t need to, and I paid a premium at the auction specifically to keep it quiet. But so many of you are curious, and since I live and breathe off your attention, I’ll make an exception. For a price, I’ll sell you one of my secrets.”

He was happy to share it—as long as they were willing to pay—as a special treat for the subscribers who followed his every move.

“That stone was a material I needed to promote my Legendary class. I’d like to thank the Fly Guild for auctioning a material that drops in the Ice Castle. As for the price everyone’s been talking about, I can tell you this much.”

He held nothing back.

“It stings. A lot. Like, I might die from regret a lot. I bid high from the start because I was afraid someone might snipe it, and while I was thrilled to win, my stomach was in knots the whole time. Sergei, who was with me, said I probably could’ve gotten it for just one billion. That’s why I made this a paid video. Just this once, I’m going to try and recoup at least a tiny fraction of what I spent.”

He shed his serious tone and, as always, delivered the video with the same casual attitude he had when he played games.

There was no reason to hide anymore.

He had already revealed himself as the Gold Maker, and with all sorts of speculation flying around, tossing in one or two truths wasn’t going to expose his entire hand.

Besides, even the truth about his promotion contained a lie.

This would only make people more interested.

A rival chasing after the Fly Guild.

Curious about his growth.

Seeing that he wasn’t fading or hitting a plateau—but was in fact accelerating—people would gradually start to acknowledge him.

—Fly: Ten billion dollars, burp.

He was a latecomer who had started far behind the pack, but he was proving he had what it took to shatter the high glass ceiling and join the frontrunners.

To that end, he quietly released one more video after the post-auction recap.

It was just one of the countless dungeon runs he had been grinding.

—What the hell? A 6-star Legendary? He just melts it like it’s nothing?

A mysterious stone, a Legendary class, a promotion, a 6-star Legendary dungeon.

The sequence of reveals wove a compelling narrative in the viewers’ minds.

6.

“Making a living is brutal.”

He let out a sigh as he watched the reactions to the video roll in.

Every now and then, a wave of doubt washed over him. ’Is this really how I’m supposed to live?’ He was constantly on the move, working himself to the bone with his mind never at rest.

The biggest issue was that, deep down, much of it felt pointless.

He didn’t have to upload videos and chase public attention.

Even if he ignored all that and just focused on his own path, he would eventually reach the top. Then, whether he wanted it or not, he would attract the same kind of attention as the Fly Guild.

But that sounded unbearably boring to Kim Buja.

And he was hardly alone in feeling that way.

People who live as part of a society, surrounded by others, naturally crave attention.

It can serve as motivation, a way to chain together small goals, or a means to inject change into a monotonous life.

For him, it was for no grander reason than that.

Especially for someone like Kim Buja, it was more important than anything.

Gold Missions, the Trial Tower.

He spent time with Jeong Seora, but the lonely battles he had to fight by himself far outnumbered those moments.

For him, staying relevant and unpredictable events that broke up the monotony were essential for enduring the long, tedious stretches of solitude.

Now that he had thrown out another hook to stir people up for a while, it was time to get back to work.

His SVIP promotion hadn’t actually accomplished much—it had only consumed the stone and raised his VIP level to 7. But the public saw him clearing 6-star Legendary dungeons, a feat made possible by the noticeable stat boost from Gold Enhancement, and assumed the Gold Maker’s promotion was something spectacular.

It gave people dreams and hope.

“I really wish I could get that strong.”

Even if they couldn’t reach his level, they began to think, ’This is where it starts. From here on, he’s going to show us how broken a growth-type class can be!’

They started to crave that kind of change.

And to make that happen, he got moving again today, just like always.

“When the hell is this damn gold grind going to end?”

1.2 million gold.

He had already managed to save up a whopping 400,000 gold.

As the dungeon levels increased, the amount of gold he earned had risen significantly.

The gold he received from the ’Wait for Free Gold’ system also averaged around 600 gold a day, thanks to its high proc rate.

A month or two.

If he gave himself plenty of time, that was all he needed to hit his target.

’Chapter 3-1 is a Chapter I can clear pretty quickly, too.’

Within that window, he could afford to make a quick trip to the Continent.

Chapter 3-1 was low-difficulty, more of a breather. The only thing left was the 3rd floor of the Trial Tower.

▶ 3rd Floor [Available to Challenge]

▷ Clear Condition: Hatching

▷ Reward: SVIP Promotion Stone (1), Level 3, ???

He could attempt it anytime, but the clear condition bothered him, so he had been putting it off.

’What the hell is Hatching supposed to mean?’

What exactly was he supposed to hatch?

’Am I supposed to personally hatch something?’

On the Continent, a dragon had asked if he was interested in creating a half-dragon. Now he was half-worried that in the Trial Tower, some bizarre monsters would rush him, begging him to lay their eggs.

He briefly wondered if this was something a person could do and still lead a normal life, but given the clear condition, he felt he needed more preparation, so he shelved it for now.

“Let’s start with what I can do right away.”

And the easiest thing, as always, was grinding.